the best way to understand what happens to all of us is to read a great essay by tom wolfe, thomas wolfe enentitled mar mowing the flak catchers. this goes back to, i think, the '60s when he first wrote it. now, wolfe is trying to describe a particular pattern in san francisco. in which the welfare department has figured out that all of the senior welfare people should be on the second floor of the welfare office hiding from the people they serve. and the newest, least paid people should be on the ground floor screening the people who are mad. and wolfe describes the samoan community in san francisco. as having figured out what the game was. and so you would have 6-5 and 6-6 samoans come in carrying traditional native war clubs. [laughter] and they would walk up to the front desk, and they would say i want to see the boss. and the underpaid, brand new staff person would say, uh, we're not supposed to let you see the boss. and they would start to hit the floor with their club. and so you'd have this normal-sized person staring up at this gigantic samoan with his war club and thinking to h